Saturday, June 25, 2005

CKS Airport, Take 3

This is my third time departing from CKS Airport on this trip. This time, I'm in the Cathay Pacific lounge waiting for my flight to Hong Kong then Los Angeles. Cathay is in Terminal 1 which is the older terminal. The lounge is pretty nice but the rest of the terminal looks old and crappy. It's been a long hectic week since I got back to Taiwan from Singapore so I didn't have time to update anything. I try to remember what I did now that I have an hour and a half before my flight.

Returning from Singapore to Taipei, there were a lot of flights taking off at Changi Airport so I was delayed. I ran to the Ubus ticket counter after my flight arrived and bought a bus ticket (NT$230) from CKS to Taichung departing at 10:40pm. When the bus arrived, it was completely packed and I got the back corner seat. Each bus only holds about 20 people since the seats are huge and they recline. Well, with the seat in front of me reclined, there was zero leg room for the 2 hour ride. Arriving at Taichung, I wasn't sure where to get off. Fortunately, someone on the bus lived in Taichung and told me where and when to get off the bus. I did get yelled at by the bus driver however. Seeing my hotel across the intersection, I asked him where I would get off for the hotel. He said loudly, "Across the street! Can't you see I'm signalling to pull over?" Actually, I didn't see him signalling but I thought it was not the time to argue details.

During the three days I was in Singapore, Shirley and her family went on a tour of Eastern Taiwan with her father's siblings. I made it back to Taiwan in time for the lunch party in Taichung. The lunch was held in a banquet place that had multiple events. Our party had about 80 people including all the siblings, their spouses, children and spouses (Shirley's cousins), and grandkids. There were also raffle prizes, enough for everyone. Our family won a digital camera, electronic thermometer, electric juicer, and a thermos mug. The food was okay... not typically Chinese banquest stuff I'm used to. After the lunch party, we were off again to CKS Airport. Shirley and I were headed off to Hong Kong and her father, mother, and Kevin were going back to Los Angeles. Silvia was going to stay in Taiwan with relatives until we got back from Hong Kong.

Our flight to Hong Kong was on Dragon Air. We had heard stories about how bad it was but the plane was a pretty new Airbus A330 and clean. It was a short flight from Taipei to Hong Kong and Shirley's classmate, German, was there at the airport to meet us. He is from Hong Kong but went to school (UCLA and Rosemead) in the U.S. He took us to our hotel and a quick bite to eat at a hole-in-the-wall nearby.